Liberty Party

The Liberty Party was an American abolitionist party that existed from 1840 to 1848. The party was founded by abolitionists who believed that the US Constitution was an anti-slavery document, opposing William Lloyd Garrison's view that is supported slavery; therefore, the party sought to work within electoral politics to achieve the abolition of slavery. The party spoiled the 1844 presidential election for Whig candidate Henry Clay, as the Liberty Party took 15,800 votes, while the Democrat James K. Polk won the state by a narrow margin of 5,100 votes; if the Libertyites had voted for Clay, he would have won New York, and, therefore, the minimum number of electoral votes needed to win. After 1848, many of the party's members joined the anti-slavery (but not abolitionist) Free Soil Party.